Elon University’s Center for the Arts in need of renovations

According to students and faculty in the Department of Performing Arts, Elon University's Center for the Arts is a building in need of renovations. Photo by Douglas Williams, reporter.

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The hallways in the Center for the Arts double as storage space for props and technical items. Photo by Douglas Williams, reporter.

At a time when seemingly every building at Elon University is being renovated, there is one that is being ignored.

The Center for the Arts is home to some of the best programs Elon has to offer, and the performing arts department is growing at a rapid rate. These are all good things, except for the fact that the program is quickly outgrowing the building. Junior Karrah Fleshman is an actress in the upcoming musical “Crazy for You,” and doesn’t quite think the building matches the quality of the work.

“I think that if this building were to represent what this performing arts program can do, it would be ginormous,” Fleshman said.

There are faculty offices that should be closets, and dressing rooms that are being used as storage. Every nook and cranny of the building is being used for something. The most important issue, however, may in fact be McCrary Theatre. Without a lobby and comfortable seating, the theater that hosts all the big events may be the biggest eyesore of all.

Technical director Bill Webb, who knows the building inside and out, said he is dying for new additions to the theater.

The dressing rooms in the Center for the Arts are “way too small,” according to Bill Webb, technical director for the building. Photo by Douglas Williams, reporter.

“Our student body and our faculty are too large for this theater,” Webb said. “We need a bigger facility with more seats just to house what we currently do.”

Elon has recently removed tours of McCrary off their scheduled tour destination list, and is apparently working on a massive new School of Communications building — a move that has Webb, and others, annoyed.

“The university talks very kindly of us and at a very high level and talks about us as one of the pride and joys of the institution,” Webb said. “And I don’t believe that our facilities would support that idea because we really are in a bad theater and this is not a good building.”